The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-08-18
TROPHIES OF THE WAR.
A GLANCE AT THE CAPTURED
CONFEDERATE FLAGS.
Story Told by the Enblems of Lost
Cause-Banners of Silk and Banners
Of Tatters-How the Flags Are Kept.

Story Told by the Enblems of Lost
Cause-Banners of Silk and Banners
Of Tat.ers-How the Flags Are Kept.
William Jackson Armstrong in New York
World.l
Carried by an elevator five stories up,
under the roof Of the war department,
almost burning in the Washington sum-
mer weather, the key being turned by
my guide in the door of an attic room,
| stood an instant later in the little
space hardly more than ten feet square,
nearly within reaching distance on all
sides of these battered mementoes of the
war, the very mention of which has set
ahre the hearts of 6o,ooo,ooo of pco-
plea few rags saturated with the eX-
plosive wash of patronism But the
first thought on seeing them in this pent
up space of attic is of the Smallness of
the cause to the size of the effect. The
flags heaped about the room appear at
first sight only a handful at the most,
but counted separately there are 75o in
all, over 500 of them being Confed-
crate and the remainder Federal flags
recaptured from their captors. One
half of the entire number are attached
to their slaves as they were originally
taken, the flags OF the two sections be-
ing stacked in separate masses against
, two sides of the room, facing the other
half folded and protruding from pigeon
holes on the opposite walls The sight
of the Stars and Stripes keeps always
familiar But the first look at the
dark red heap of the banners of the
rebellion, piled here against the side
of the attic, blots out twenty-five years
from the memory and brings back as
if it were yesterday the red years when
they waved at the head of their regi-
ment There is hardly flag among
them all that has not its history re-
corded in the book in the hands of the
keeper Of the room. All nearly are
riddled with bullets, and many, like
those carried through such battles as
the Wilderness and the second Bull
Run, were shot literally into tatters
and almost unacceptable sprays of
| rag.
A SIGNIFICANT CONTRAST.
The contrast in the appearance of
| the Southern and Union standards is
significant cf the history of the war.
The latter are rigged on clean, pol
ished poles and are of firm, rich mate
rial, many OF them of silk, showing an
abundance in the North of the fabrics
of which they continued to be made.
The majority of the Confederate flags
are of the wretchedest shoddy bunting,
miserable in color as in substance,
while great numbers of them are
mounted on rude, Embarked gads and
saplings, hastily cut from the woods
on the march-recalling the blockade
and the pinching days when war had
fallen on a section without manufac-
lures, and the intense, desperate pur'
pose Of a people forgot seemlinesS and
absorbed every thought but the win
ming of their fight.
Many of the flags lying folded in
the boxes and taken out to be exhib-
tied by the guardian of the room recall
still more vividly the narrow straits OF
rebellion on its last legs, being literally
independent of discrimination in color
and made OF patches from women
dresses and underskirts of nearly every
hue and material-pitiful reminders OF
the Spartan poverty and courage that
were still to fail of their end. There
are some exceptions, however, in this
storeroom Of battle trophies, to these
mementoes of the sterner days Of the
war for the South. The attendant
drew from the pigeon holes on the
walls and unfolded for my inspection
three or four magnificent banners OF
heavy silk, fringed with tassels of gold
and ornamented with pictures in oil
and rich embroiderings On field ot
blue. These flags represent the early
and halcyon days of the lost cause,
when they were made by local associ-
atoms Of ladies and presented to the
military organizations which carried
them. One of those flags belonged to
the Appalachicola Guard, whose name
IS stitched in gold letters on its fold
above the exultant notices: ain God
is Our Trust "Our Rights We VIII
Maintain" The finest Of them all is
the banner "presented by the ladie,
Of Norfolk to the Norfolk Light Artil-
lery," with an oil portrait of Washing
ton in the center Of its field, the mot.
toes on the reverse side being the same
as those on the flag just described.
LUXURY N DESIGNS.
The days when the Confederate
armies could afford such luxury in en-
signs quickly passed away, however
as IS evidenced by the collection, rep
resenting every period of the war. Il
the beginning of the civil war the de
! sign of the flag carried by the Southern
regiments was that OF the Stars anc
Bars-two red bars and one white
changing at a later period to a rec
field with the Southern Cross, resemb